Flyers Acquire Carle, Briere to Return

First, the Flyers received news that Daniel Briere would return to the line up early. Next the Flyers made a move to shake the team up. The name that continue to pop up was forward Brendan Shanahan, but earlier today the Flyers went a different route.

They acquired 6'0" 205 lbs defenseman Matt Carle and San Jose's third round pick from Tampa Bay for defensemen Steve Eminger, forward Steve Downie, and Tampa Bay's original fourth round pick.

“Matt Carle is a good young defenseman and we are thrilled to add a player with his abilities to our roster,” said Holmgren in making the announcement. “He will add skill and speed to our lineup and should fit in great with our team.”

“I also would like to thank Steve Eminger and Steve Downie for their professionalism as players here and we wish them nothing but the best in the future.” [Flyers.com]

In 163 career NHL games, Carle has recorded 17 goals, 48 assists, and 76 penalty minutes. During the 2006-2007 season, Carle was named to the all-rookie team. Carle's cap hit is $3.438 million.

Carle had a bad season last year, but he is still young and under contract until after the 2011/2012 season. He is definitely an upgrade over Steve Eminger and Holmgren considers Carle to be a top 4 defenseman.

Eminger has been everything we should have expected him to be. We gave up a 1st round pick this year for Eminger and he was the bust that Washington wrote him off to be.

Steve Downie was a head case that was often taking terrible penalties and turning the puck over. Downie, though still young, became expendable with the acquistion of guys like Hartnell, Upshall, and Lupul. Truthfully, there is just no room with Giroux and JVR a year or two away as well. Downie was never able to maintain a spot on the top 3 lines and there's no point to keep him if he's just going to be a 4th line winger.

So, in the end, we virtually traded a first round pick and Steve Downie for Matt Carle. I hope it works out, but that remains to be seen.

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Flyers Sign D Steve Eminger

According to the Yahoo Sports and the Sports Network, the Flyers have signed recently acquired defenseman Steve Eminger to a one-year contract.

I'm happy to get the deal worked out and excited about being part of the organization," Eminger said. "I can't wait for the start of the season to get things going."

As mentioned before, Eminger will compete for the final defensive pairing with Lasse Kukkonen, Ryan Parent, and Janne Niskala. Terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed, but I'd assume he received some form of a raise over the $1 million he made last year, but likely not much if any. The Flyers now have 7 defensemen under contract and 1 left to sign in Randy Jones: Kimmo Timonen, Derian Hatcher, Braydon Coburn, Steve Eminger, Ryan Parent, Lasse Kukkonen, and Janne Niskala.

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Flyers Rumors: Carter, Cote, Jones, Eminger

According to Paul Holmgren, the Flyers are nearing the completion of contract extensions for Jeff Carter and Riley Cote. They also hope to negotiate with Randy Jones and Steve Eminger before July 1st.

Holmgren said the Flyers are very close to finalizing a multiyear deal with Carter, are also close with Cote, and are confident they can get Jones on paper before free agency opens July 1.

Eminger, acquired along with a third-round pick (which was used to draft goalie Jacob DeSerres) from the Capitals for the 27th pick overall, is also going to be without a contract July 1, but Holmgren said it will not be a difficult negotiation. Eminger made $1 million last season.

[Daily News]
Yes, we did jump the gun a little bit on the Jeff Carter deal and will make sure we wait to post any real numbers until the deal is official. Signing Cote would be a nice move because the Flyers still need that style of player on the 4th line. Steve Downie can do it, but he is more valuable on the ice using his offensive ability, rather than throwing punches and landed in the box for 5 minutes at a time.

Randy Jones is a must sign for the Flyers as he improved mightily throughout the season. He led the Flyers in +/- throughout the playoffs and he was one of their leaders for the entire season.

Steve Eminger is a former first round pick, was traded for a first round, and we'd hope he plays like a first round pick. Eminger has welcomed the opportunity to come to Philadelphia and likes how they are physical. He was honored to be traded for a first round pick and he is excited for the challenge. Eminger is still only 24 and he showed some bright spots during the playoff series against the Flyers -- which seems to be what really made Holmgren interested in him. Eminger is the third first- round pick on the Flyers roster from the 2002 NHL Draft. The other two are Scottie Upshall and Joffrey Lupul. The Flyers used their pick in that draft to select Joni Pitkanen.

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Flyers Trade Umberger, Later Acquire Eminger

Early into the draft night, the Flyers traded the rights to R.J. Umberger to Columbus for the 19th pick overall. It was a move the Flyers clearly needed to make because of the salary cap. They basically had to pick Carter or Umberger and they chose Carter, which is the right decision. Well, we think they chose Carter, but they have declined everything about signing him.

With the 19th pick, the Flyers drafted Luca Sbisa, an offensive-minded defenseman who can also play forward at time. It has been said that he doesn't make too many mistakes in his own zone. He was the 10th defenseman drafted at the time. Central Scouting had this to say:

Strengths: Luca is a poised and, sometimes, too poised a defenseman. One would say that a lot of times his calmness with the puck is misinterpreted as either slowness or laziness; that's not the case with Luca. He is a smart player who moves the puck at the right time and carries the puck correctly, supports the rush and is adjusting very well to the North American game."

Areas to improve: "He needs continued adjustment to the North American game, he isn't afraid under a forecheck but sometimes under a hard forecheck of one or two players of the opposition, he will tend to throw the puck away too early. As much as the poise comes in to play with the puck on his stick, when the puck isn't on his stick I think that will be an area that will get better with time."

Pogo will go into greater detail discussing all of the Flyers picks after the draft is complete.

Later in the draft, the Flyers traded the 27th overall pick to Washington for D Steve Eminger. With the Flyers lacking a 2nd round pick, it would have been smarter to hold onto the pick and draft a goalie. Let's face it Biron and Niittymaki are FAs after this season. The Flyers haven't had a top goalie prospect in awhile.

Last year, Eminger was often a healthy scratch for the Washington Capitals, but he did see time in 5 playoff games against the Flyers. Holmgren had this to say,

Steve is a player we’ve always liked," said Holmgren. "He’s a former teammate of Mike Richards in Kitchener, so we those two have a connection. He’s still just 25 years old. I don’t believe he’s reached his peak yet and still has a ways to go. We think he’s going to be a nice fit."

I'm really not a big fan of the trade.

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